Everywhere I’ve lived had gas for heating and cooking. Is it that rare in some locals?
Anyway when we remodeled our kitchen we switched from gas to electric because the electric stove has self-cleaning and timed cooking with delay start.
Geez, am I that old? Next thing you know younger people will be telling me “You still have those old-fashioned incandescent light fixtures?”
I live in an somewhat older house (30 years, maybe?) that has a gas stove. I hate electrics, though I’m not much of a cook. I can control stovetop temps much better with gas, and the burners cool down much faster – if I’m boiling something that’s done boiling, I don’t have to turn off the heat and move the pot, I can just turn off the heat. It’s a little thing, but given the choice, I’ll take gas every time.
The stereotyping of women in older movies bugs the heck out of me, even though I know things have changed since then and I can’t judge them by my standards. But still…sheesh, we don’t all want a man to protect us and run our lives for us while we clean the house.
How about gas rationing coupons or stickers on car windshields. I’m thinking particularly of a Laurel & Hardy short where gas rationing is mentioned.
Then there are the Speakeasies, where you have to have a password (swordfish) to get in.
In Re: the gas/electric stove issue: I’ve lived in several areas of the U.S. and I can say that the norm varies by region. The north eastern U.S. uses gas stoves primarily, and consider electric ones to be an abomination. The south and what I’ve seen of the western US uses electricity and is largely unaware of the use of gas stoves in other areas. (Gas is superior for cooking because you can interrupt the heat immediately.)
I love that big ol’ block of ice in the ice box in kitchens in old movies, being delivered by the ice man with those huge tongs.
Also curling tongs like in “The Blue Angel”. Powder puffs and other boudoir items. Maribu.
Kentucky and North Carolina are the Northeast? Wow, I really do learn something new every day.
I saw this movie where the woman set her alarm earlier that her husband’s so that she could “put her face on” before he got up. She was very upset about the idea of her husband seeing her without makeup.
Or the amount of hard liquor consumed at any given time. I actually asked my mom if gin used to be weaker than it is today. “No, drink 5 martinis and throw up, just like today.”
That explains the twin beds, then.
Another Bogie movie: I saw High Sierra in a theater in 1979. One scene he buys a tank of gas just before heading into the mountains. Prominently showing on the pump (One of the big glass cylinder jobs) is the price, ten cents a gallon. Gas had just topped a buck back then and you could hear the audience sigh.
DD
The thing I remember from High Sierra is that when everyone gets to the tourist cabins up in the mountains (no such thing as a motel), one of the locals offers to drain the radiator of Bogart’s car and refill it in the morning so it won’t freeze up. It is clear that this is the guy’s job and he does if for every customer of the place if they don’t do it themselves.
I imagine at altitude this was a pretty common responsibility.
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You don’t have a maribou powder puff in your boudoir? How do you apply your perfumed dusting powder after you step out of your bath?
Fun thread. In that spirit, “Eve kid you are a hoot”.
Three more:
Golfers wore knee pants, and tam o’shanters with gi-normous pom-poms and saddle shoes… you still get that a little today from the odd eccentric – but then those were standard issue golf duds. Even among businessmen.
Freshman in college wore beanies and sweaters.
At a nightclub folks seemed to always be wearing Prom clothes on an average Friday night out.
Hey, my freshman class was the last class at my university to wear beanies until the team shut out an opponent on the gridiron or when the team won the homecoming game.
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I live in Arizona. We have a gas stove, hot water heater and fireplace. I took a Learning Annex class in San Diego a couple of summers ago on real estate investing. The instructor said that it had been common there to build new housing with both gas and 220v hookups. But due to rising costs, it’s one or the other now.
As for hats, I feel that guys anymore all look like clones in their ball caps. And don’t get me started on the backward hat look. In the summer, I wear a Fedora type Panama hat, similar to what Don Knotts wears with his civies in Andy of Mayberry and “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.” I even have the same red hatband. I also have a straw boater that I bought from J. Peterman, but haven’t had the nerve to wear it in public. Maybe if I get some sleeve garters…
I’ve always wanted a felt Fedora but after the Indiana Jones craze in the 80’s I’m not so hot for them anymore. Still wish I had one of my grandpa’s though.
Also in Grand Hotel, there’s a scene in which John Barrymore breaks into the hotel room of Greta Garbo, who plays a world-famous ballerina, in order to steal her valuable pearls. She comes in and catches him. His quick-thinking save? He claims that he is in love with her and often breaks into her room when she is gone so he can be near her stuff. Of course, she falls in love with him.
Reading the post about people in prom dress to go to a nightclub prompted me to mention the nightclubs I’ve seen in movies. They were h-u-g-e rooms that must have had 100-foot ceilings, as there were draperies that seemed to come from the sky, and chanteueses would be lowered on half-moons or swings onto the stage. And the stages! There were scenery and props and an enormous bandstand with a full orchestra, and dozens of dancers would come from somewhere (not likely the kitchen) in full costume and makeup to do elaborate production numbers.
Has there ever been a nightclub like this, anywhere on earth? I’ve been a performing musician for nearly three decades, and I’ve never seen anything like them.